Lucky Break by Heather Briggs

By Heather Briggs
May 7, 2012 16:35

Summary:

Four years ago Lucky Devereaux shot and killed her adoptive sister and left two children orphaned and in the hands of a monster. Now Lucky may have a lead that will help her save the children from a fate worse than death, but Lucky isn’t the only one looking for them. Will she be able to save them in time, or will she die trying?

Lucky Break is book # 2 of the Lucky Devereaux series

The author has rated this book PG-13 (questionable content for children under 13).

Book video:

Excerpt:

“Shut up all that damn crying, you brat!” Tamika yelled at the little girl huddled in the corner. “Why the hell can’t you be like your brother?” The boy in question was sitting at the kitchen table in the dingy two bedroom tract house, smiling at his sister’s obvious terror. Tamika James was a twisted woman who had been trying her hardest to warp the two children for the past four years and she was only succeeding with the boy, which caused Tamika to rile at the young girl every chance she got.

The tiny body of the girl trembled with her fear, but she still managed to find enough courage to fight back in her own soft-spoken way. “Mama Tamika, I’m sorry. It’s just that all that blood made me feel sick, and the puppy’s screaming hurt my head. I just don’t understand why you want us to do that to those poor defenseless animals.” The girl was rewarded with another snap of the belt across her painfully thin legs.

“Don’t speak right now, you vile creature. I am tired of being disobeyed by you. Go to your room for the rest of the night and don’t even come out to pee. Do you understand me?” The girl rose weakly to her feet and nodded her understanding before running to the front of the house where she shared a room with her brother. Tears were streaming down her face leaving tracks in the dirt and dried blood from their earlier lessons on the best way to skin something alive.

The girl knew that what Mama Tamika made them do was wrong, and she hated it so much, but if she didn’t go along then she was beaten, or worse. As the girl made it into the bedroom and threw her bleeding, throbbing body onto the bed she heard the lock click from the outside along with her brother’s sick chuckle. He was just as twisted as Mama Tamika, and sometimes the girl was more scared of him than anything else. It was something in his eyes, something evil, and hungry. Covering herself up with her smelly blanket the girl prayed like she had seen other children do on TV. Maybe someone would hear her prayers and come save her from the torture. Maybe….. * * *

Lucky suddenly burst awake like a bullet. Gagging on the images from her dream, she rushed to the bathroom and threw up last night’s dinner. From the bedroom she could hear the television playing softly. She had taken to sleeping with cartoons on because they tended to drown out the memory of that night four years ago when she had killed her adopted half -sister, Leigh. It still turned her stomach to think that she had done that to another human being even though it had been necessary. Rinsing her mouth out Lucky went back to bed and as she lay back down she wished that she hadn’t told Duke that living together was a bad idea. He had been adamant after Lucky was released from the hospital, after being shot by the police, that they move in together, but Lucky just couldn’t stand the thought that she may have one of her really ugly visions and Duke would have to see her like that at any given moment. Dozer, the American bulldog that had adopted her at the old sugar mill, snored and ruffed from the foot of her bed, and his presence calmed Lucky somewhat, but she still reached for her phone.

When Duke’s sleepy voice answered on the second ring Lucky went from distraught to mildly uncomfortable. “Hey there. I’m sorry to wake you, but I just had the most horrible nightmare and I was wondering if you would come over and keep me company?” Duke had a key so Lucky didn’t bother to get up and unlock the front door, but her heart did beat a little faster when she heard his boots coming up the stairs. He walked hard through her house on a regular basis so that she knew that what she was hearing was real. It was his way of letting Lucky know that he was trying to understand the strange gift she was cursed with.

He entered her room and asked, “Are you okay?” Moving over so that he could slide into the bed with her, Lucky briefly explained the dream.

“It was like some of the others. Someone was torturing a puppy, and there was blood everywhere. Then all of a sudden I heard two children. One was crying, and the other was laughing. The whole feeling was just twisted. It made me sick to my stomach, and I can’t help but wonder if the children I’m hearing are the ones we are looking for.” Her body shuddered a little at the memory of what happened to that poor animal, but she refused to go into detail about it with Duke.

Dozer had raised his head when Duke had entered the house, and now that Duke was in the bed with Lucky he had excused himself from the room. It was almost as if the dog understood that they needed time to themselves, and Lucky appreciated the fact that he didn’t make a pest of himself. She could hear him begin to snore in the spare room down the hall and it made her smile to herself.

“Do you want to talk more about it?” Duke asked her.

Lucky shook her head. “No, I just want you to hold me until the sun comes up.” Duke squeezed her a little tighter. “I will hold you just like this for the rest of our lives if you would just let me.” They lay there in the dark with some silly cartoon playing on the television and Lucky felt like nothing could go wrong as long as Duke was with her. Maybe she would have to rethink her decision to live alone. * * *

Stomping around her bedroom, Mama Tamika was furious. How dare that little cretin question anything she was told to do? Always acting like she was some kind of innocent little princess. Tamika threw a class perfume jar against the wall and smiled at the sound of it shattering. That’s what she would like to do with that prissy little brat. Smash her into tiny pieces and then throw what was left in the trash.

Why had she promised Leigh that she would take care of both of her demon spawn? The boy, now there was someone Tamika could be proud of. He did her bidding with glee and his dark brown eyes shown with his enjoyment while he did it. Unlike his damn sister, who cried and gagged at the sight of a little blood. Pathetic creature. She was turning out to be useless to Tamika and if she got any whinier then it would be the end for her no matter what Tamika had promised Leigh. Leigh was dead after all, so it’s not like she was going to do anything about it anyway.

Tamika heard a small screech coming from the kids’ room, and she smiled to herself. The boy must be having a little fun at his sisters’ expense. Good, maybe that will teach the little brat not to defy her in the future. Tamika crawled into her bed and fell asleep smiling at the thoughts of what he was doing to the girl this time. * * *

The girl awoke to a burning sensation on her thigh. As the pain grew worse a small squeal escaped against her will. The room was dark but the girl knew exactly what was happening to her and who was doing it. Her brother often woke her up by hurting her somehow. This time he had decided to use the hot end of a lighter to burn her. His evil little giggle in her ear made her flesh crawl, and as his hand dropped the lighter and traveled farther up her thigh she reached out and hit him hard across the face. Jumping to her feet on her mattress the girl shrieked, “Don’t you ever touch me like that again, you bastard. It’s filthy and wrong. I will put up with a lot from you, but I will kill myself before I ever let you touch me like that.” Her face was a deep red, and her hands were trembling in her anger.

Like lightening the boy snatched her from the bed by her ankle and slammed her onto the floor. Completely unprepared, the girl couldn’t prevent her head from slamming into the frame of the bed. With the room spinning violently it took her everything she had to keep from passing out. The boy straddled her prone form and put his face right in hers. He didn’t speak; he never spoke, just laughed. He wasn’t incapable of speech; he just didn’t see the reason to express anything vocally when he could do it with torture.

His hot fetid breath rushed over the girls face, causing her to gag. She refused to let him see her sweat though and she was tired of not fighting back. So she hit him again, this time right in the side of his back. He grunted and swung back, catching her right in the head. Her world spun again as he lifted her to her feet. He was only eleven years old but he was as strong as a full grown man, and it wasn’t hard for him to lift her off her feet and slam her into the wall.

She knew that egging him on was a bad idea, having suffered these beating before, but she was hoping that this time he would kill her and end her suffering. She didn’t want to live like this, hurting animals, listening from the other room as her brother did unimaginable things with women from the streets. Some of those women had never been heard from again, and the girl knew that it was only a matter of time before her brother turned his attentions on her in that way. Her world began to go black as his fist connected over and over with her face. Finally peace came in the form of a blown to the head with a golf club.

As the girls tiny body slid down to rest at the boys’ feet he smiled that sick smile of his and turned to get into his bed. With a smile on his face and beautiful dreams of dead animals, and mutilated prostitutes in his head the boy drifted off to sleep.